Below is one article excerpt from our CIC Watch April 1-15:

GMail Paper? Are you kidding me?!
GMail免费打印服务？别开玩笑了?!

GMail, one of the most popular email services, announced its GMail Paper service on the day of April 1st, as many netizens soon realized, it was just another kind joke (sample post: GMail推出GMail Paper邮件打印打包服务) from Google. But who would always have the right guess? (GMail is a service that is actually announced on April 1st, 2004)

Speaking of Internet Word of Mouth, Google’s series of April 1st joke is an interesting reference of how company can utilize the buzz effect on a very special date. People usually would not believe the surprising news on April 1st which actually became the very reason that gave GMail a buzzing hit on the market. Now this has become a valuable “tradition” for Google to release any new services in the future. People may expect, but they may never know when it is real.
Of course, it is not necessarily for any brand to use such tactic. But this could be a very suitable choice for the launch of an un-precedent product, service or campaign. People may laugh at first :”It’s must be joking”, but when they finally know it is real, it may be the time the buzz explosive’s ticking come to the end…